what the hell am I going to do with Venetian Calamari Linguine?

here's the problems with me and cooking

1. I get bored easily and don't want to do the same recipe again and again

2. I hate measuring things out so ... I don't ... most of the time

but, I made a really, really, really good dish on Saturday night - I took pictures and everything - I measured things out (kind of) and then I paired it with a good wine and it was divine - at least we thought so - here's what I did:

I first purchased (kind of) this pasta at winesbywednesday.com

(trust me, it says Venetian Calamari Linguine - hard to get good photographers to work weekends)

then I googled V.C.L. recipe's and read through to get ideas of what others might do with this odd sounding pasta

then I went to the store and bought all of this stuff for $17.98

 

that's one bunch of Italian parsely (seemed appropriate since Venice is in Italy)

a lemon

some garlic (again with the Italy thing)

a hunk of Pecorino cheese (which was $7.36 of the $17.98)

some Bay Scallops

a few Cherry Tomatoes (or grape, I can't remember and it's not important)

and it's all tax deductible now that I've written this blog ... right Alecia?

I heated up water in a pasta pan and when it was boiling I added a drop or two of olive oil and dumped in enough pasta for the two of us - cooked it to al dente -

we are going to be sauteing this in a little while so keep it true al dente please!

(can you believe how fast my hands are - or how bad my photography assistant really was - you be the judge)

then I started sauteing the scallops in two tablespoons of wbw Organic Tuscan Olive Oil

 

(make sure if you buy frozen and thaw that you pat them dry first - I didn't but sure wished I would have!)

poured myself a nice glass of Pinot Grigio from Alois Lageder

(this is clearly a pose - I pour wine a little to fast for camera lenses as well)

spilled exactly 1/4 cup of that wine into the pan and let them simmer for about 4 minutes, stirring occasionally

(the scallops that is - I swirled, sniffed then drank the wine like a true cork dork would)  

if anyone out there actually makes this recipe do not overcook these damn it - I don't know what size scallop you are going to buy so I can't tell you exactly how long to saute but to make sure I didn't overcook I tasted one at two minutes and three minutes - I was sauteing on low heat

I removed from pan and set aside (the scallops that is, not the wine)

oops - I actually did set aside my wine to chop the parsley and slice the tomatoes while those scallops were sauteing - I did 3 tablespoons of parsley and 12 tomatoes sliced in half the long way - if you think that's not enough or too much do more or less - I don't care that much to be honest

now add two more tablespoons of that same Tuscan Olive Oil you purchased at wbw a while back and spill another 1/4 cup of wine into that same scallop pan (that should leave you with exactly 2 glasses each to have with dinner - for some reason it only left us with 1.5 glasses each for dinner - weird!)

put in the garlic and saute that for a couple of minutes or so

(hopefully you have a cool cleaver like this one - if not you should probably go buy one - people will say - that's a real cool cleaver you've got there)

then mix a little more of that olive oil to the pasta and stir it around

 (probably should have done this in a bowl without holes in it - for future reference)

and throw the pasta, the tomatoes and the parsley in the pan and stir around for five minutes or so - mostly until the tomatoes are warm but not squishy.

(I should have had this on the cleaver too - I'm such an idiot!)

put the scallops back in to warm them - a minute or so should do the trick

then spoon it out real nice and arranged pretty on yellow plates like these and squeeze the half of one lemon per serving on top like this

grate some of that great (and damn expensive) Pecorino cheese on top

top with a little freshly ground black pepper and a pinch of this stuff:

and you have this:

a fresh, amazingly tasty dish that took me twenty minutes to prepare - well it would have if I wasn't measuring and photographing and drinking and stuff

hope someone reads this and makes it - the truth is that a recipe just about like this is out there if you google Venetian Calamari Linguine - but she showed a cat napping in her sink as the last photograph - you wouldn't have respected me at all if I'd have just given you that link - we both know that - so I had to plagiarize - and is it really plagiarism if you admit to it at the end?

cheers,

mt

 

Walla Walla or Bust!

so, pictures and interviews and tasting notes and maybe a one liner or two on the way starting Thursday evening - it'll be fun, I promise - bookmark this as a favorite please and thanks! If you become a follower (just of the blog, not of my lifestyle for Pete's sake) you'll be notified when it's updated.

the can't miss wine tasting!

 Nick Sniffing

talking, reading, listening, sniffing, sipping, drinking!

 great food, great wine

I think I made Arlene mad!

 early in the evening, people listening

 maps and notes and things

pontificating

 sneaking a 2nd glass - got caught!

 Nick Entertaing the Gang!

Paron's Flat Shiraz/Cabernet

Scoot Hiding - Tim Smiling - Typical

hey Cathie - don't believe a word

 Bob's Better (much better) Half

 the long, long lecture on Siepi's Super Tuscan's

  a lot of wine ... just so much time

 listen - divide by half - somewhere near the truth

a laid back Doc - enjoying the juice!

THINGS I KNOW!

I am continually amazed at the level in which people are interested in wine in the USA (say the oosah*) in general and specifically in Great Falls these days. I have been asked to do 19 wine tastings since I've opened, I've been interviewed by KRTV and the local Pubic Radio Station, people in grocery stores have called for my advice on what they should buy finding themselves in that uncomfortable predicament, I even had a guy bring a wine list over from across the room in a restaurant and ask what he should order – I find it frankly ... well, fun! So, since everyone seems so interested in the subject I've decided to publish a little of what I've learned in the past years while studying diligently about the subject I find so fascinating - here goes:

I know that Syrah and Shiraz are the same grape – that Petite Sirah is unrelated and that Zinfandel's history was under dispute for many years. Experts now agree however that it is of Croatian origin and those same experts mostly agree that parts of California and Zinfandel seem to be a match made in wine heaven. I also know I don't actually enjoy Zin's taste that much so I trust my buddy Bob DeLong to help me with this varietal – he says “It's good” - I sell it, my customers say “Hey, that was good!” - I say “Perfect”!

I know that if it says Bourgogne (Burgundy) on the label and is a red wine it is Pinot Noir, if the juice is white it's Chardonnay. If it says Chablis and is from France I know it is also part of the Burgundy region so it is a Chardonnay and I will enjoy the hell out of it - it will be steely and fresh and minerally with just a touch of fruit. I know if it says Chablis and is from the Central Valley of California I should leave it on the shelf for some other soul who probably will enjoy the hell out of it in his or her own way!

I know I love the taste of the varietal Cabernet Franc – one of my American favorites is by Lang & Reed and I further know that if I see one of these three names on a label – Chinon, Bourgueil or Samur then it is this: from the Loire Valley in France, is made solely from the Cabernet Franc grape, has a beautiful nose, an easy going palate, is on the light side in the mouth and will finish with grace and beauty.

I know that Washington State Syrah's are “on the map”. I know that if I see a Syrah from a vineyard that is in that state's Red Mountain AVA I am more than likely going to love it. It will be big, bold, darkly fruity, perfectly dry but not overly tannic - just plain drinkable. I also know that if I see a label with the words “Ciel du Cheval” on it I am REALLY going to like it – that being a vineyard on Red Mountain that lots of people are thinking may just be Washington's best – in the running for the USA's (yep, you got it – the oosah's*) best – I unfortunately know lots of people who would argue with me about this but since it's my article I get to say what I want - damn it!

I know that despite their quality, selling Washington State Syrah's is challenging – selling Australian Shiraz's over $30 is troublesome and selling Cabernet from Oregon is downright impossible – I'm OK with that last one however, why would you drink anything red from Oregon other than their phenomenal Pinot's?

I know that the percentage of red wine drinkers that frequent my website who love “Notorious B.I.G. Wines” is in the 80% range and would not like a Chinon much if I gave it to them. Therefore, I know to stock approximately 80% of my red wines to fit that “Notorious B.I.G.” category.

I know that some people love Kendall Jackson's “Reserve” Chardonnay no matter how much I rail against it – and, thank God, I know three people who were formally addicted to that “product” who have been set free and are now enjoying Vinho Verde's, Picpoul de Pinet's, German Riesling's and even – yep, it's true – the Rhone's beautiful pairing of white grapes – Roussanne and Marsanne – in fact one person reported back - “I can't even drink Chardonnay anymore” - now that's progress!

I know that a $10 bottle of wine can be good but not great – sorry to say, it's just true. The $10 bottle is enjoyable, smells lovely, has nice fruit on the palate but just can't match the complexity and length that a good, expensive bottle does. Layer upon layer going through your palate and a finish lasting minutes, even longer if you pay attention. My opinion is that if you are really, really interested in wine at some point you just have to taste a true “legendary” wine - a Domaine de la Romanée Conti, a Chateau Lafite Rothschild, a Screaming Eagle, a Penfolds Grange – and don't let someone talk you into doing it blind. Let the mystery of a “great” bottle of wine seep into your soul, let it get your heart beating in anticipation of opening it, let it sit in your cellar or if need be, your wine “fridge” for as long as it takes to reach its optimum and open it with a great deal of fanfare. Do it with wine loving friends, make it a special moment but don't wait too long for that moment. Never be afraid to be voice your own opinion but trust the experts a little and read what they think is great about your wine. Mostly, let it be an experience!

I know you are about done reading my I knows so I'll give you one last “I know” -

I know it is great fun reading, writing, talking, nosing and tasting wine – thanks for letting me be part of your wine experiences and mostly thanks for buying my wine so I can keep it up – cheers to you!

your pal,

mt

* my son and I seemed to find ourselves in a tapas bar called George's in Villanova Spain, every night for a few nights in a row when visiting a few years ago - it was next door to our apartment and the proprietor taught us to say we were from the oosah when asked – he let us play Taj Mahol's “21^st Century Gypsy Singin' Lover Man” on his sound system every night – he was cool, he made us feel comfortable that being from the oosah was cool – the least we can do to say “thanks” is to pass it on – feel free to use it your own self!

off to the barn!

so, the only way I will ever know if you like a wine or not, to learn your palate, to know what I should be suggesting for you is for you to tell me what you think of the wines I sell you, I've been asking everyone to e-mail what they thought of the wine I've sold them - this one made me laugh - and ponder:

I love a good book, and I want to believe a good bottle of wine,-------- will take me places-------somewhat like a book, get lost; so------- if you want me to comment on the vino, not only may I include clarity, smell, taste, etc., I will also say where this wine takes me in a certain moment, in a certain time. Tastin wine------ my way.

La Piazza Primitivo

Hubbie - "mouthy, good nose"

Me - "harsh, garnet color, leather comes to mind, with a snap of a finish.

Yep, Mark, took me to the horse barn.

Would I buy it again? Probably not.

perfect!

thought #1 - no more Primitivo from Italy for her - might even have to write off Zinfandel!

thought #2 - love her musings on where wine takes her - the book analogy is perfect - do we really care if it smells like green apples or a old leather saddle? re-read what she said about this wine - how can you not want to spend $10 just to see what you think? I had to open a bottle - how fun to read her thoughts juxtaposed with my palate - my own thoughts were:


deep and dark and brooding and yes, barnyardy - it took me to the barn as well ... but I happen to like that in a wine - almost every Burgundy I've ever tasted starts at the barn on the nose - goes through the raspberry/cherry patch and then finishes with a strength and purpose to make you remember them - this wine is not a polished Burgundy however the somewhat short finish reminded me of this: you know when you sprinkle pepper on a bowl of hot tomato soup and that first bite all you taste is that pepper, that's it - I would risk $10 on another bottle of this little country wine!


thought #3 - I need to reward tasters who write descriptors back! I think sometimes people are afraid to write what they think about a wine - wondering if they are right or if the "experts" think differently - doesn't matter - if you tell me what you're thinking I'm gonna find a way to make it worth your while. This particular taster I gave a bottle of a Spanish blend I'm thinking about selling - can't wait for those thoughts to show up! Two things happen - I get to give you better service and I get lots of opinions on the wines I'm selling - perfect business model!


so, please take me up on sending your thoughts - make them as descriptive as possible, make them fun, make them any way you'd like I guess but just send them in - I'll find a way to reward you - I promise!


your pal,


mt

ps: also got this text message earlier this week: "you were right - we knocked down (technical wine tasting term) two of the Goose Ridge Syrah's last night at dinner - loved 'em - if you have any more I'll take all of them!"

Palate's – Mine is Right – Yours is Wrong, Damn It!

I've done a couple of tastings in the last week – here's what I've noticed – it seems as though there's a big diversity of palate's out there. Of course I'm being facetious – I always knew that but since between the two events we had in the neighborhood of 250 people, it really came home to me just how different they can be.

At the wine tasting at the Tap House Grill I stopped at one table and one of the ladies said to me “I can't believe how much better I like this wine with the food – I would rate it an incredible food wine!” Two tables later: “I really liked this wine until I ate the food with it, it absolutely ruined the wine!”

At the fund-raising wine tasting for the Peak Swim Team it was even more apparent – one guy had his wife come up and try the Jezebel Pinot Noir that he absolutely loved – she took one sip and you would have thought we had just given her vinegar – her face wrinkled up, she reached for the spit bucket and couldn't get it out of her mouth quickly enough – “this is awful!”. An hour later another man came up with his wife and had her try the same Pinot – he also had tried it earlier and loved it – she tried it, I was apprehensive – she loved it – they bought two bottles!

A couple of lessons from this experience – if I say it's good – it just is, damn it! Just joking – I was at a wine tasting “lesson” in Burgundy a few years back from a really nice French man who liked Americans (not always a given over there) and I was trying to learn how to discern the difference between a good and bad Pinot. He poured the first tasting, taught me how to look at the color, the legs, what to look for in the nose and then he said – taste it. I did, he asked what I thought, I said “well I don't know if this is supposed to be a good one or not”. “Do you like it?” he said - “well to be honest, I don't think I like it that much.” “Perfect”, he said “that means it's not good, don't buy it. Does it matter if I think it's good but you don't like it? The only good wines are the ones YOU like and the only bad wines are the ones YOU don't like – period”. Since that day I have always remembered what Joel said that day in his barn in Burgundy. So ... when I say, “I love this wine” it means I like it, not any kind of a guarantee you will, and I think that goes for Robert Parker and the Wine Spectator as well. If they say it's a “92” and you taste it and don't like it, are you wrong? NO! I love Chinon's from the Loire Valley that get 82's – I find them interesting and delicate and they find them watery and lacking depth – WE'RE BOTH RIGHT!

A second lesson I took from these wine tastings was this. I don't believe you get to say you don't like a wine until you try it. I had to beg people to try a dry (non-sweet) Rose from Provence - “no, I don't like sweet wines” was always the sentence assuming since it was pink it was sweet. I explained that it is made from the same red grape that they were going to try down the line – Grenache, that it is done all the way to dry but that it was just a lighter version of that big heavy wine they were going to say was awesome soon! I think it was only when I said “it's what they drink all summer long on the Mediterranean” that they would try it. Only one “this is horrible” all night long! Lots of “wow, that's pretty good”. The lesson being, it's OK to say “I don't like that” as long as you've tried it, and not just tried it but done so with an open mind. Do you remember the first time you had coffee, or a beer, or blue cheese? There are still people that hate each of those but most of us love them now - the same is true of wines.

What if, like me you find you love Cabernet Franc's from the Loire Valley in France? What if you find out that while eating cured meats drizzled with white truffle honey a Barolo is the perfect complement? What if when you're at the Suki Cafe eating sushi and you find out that a semi-sweet Guwurtraiminer is the perfect pairing with all that wasabi and raw fish? What if you find out that in the end – you really don't like light bodied wines and prefer to stick to the “big” ones? Perfect – that's an informed opinion – at least you've tried the others and are now sure you prefer an Australian Shiraz to any other wine you've found.

Another lesson, if I say on my website: I found "a really good Spanish Rioja and it's a good deal" it means these two things - I like it and I think it's a good value. If you want to order it make sure you pay attention to the tasting notes and be confident it's something that “sounds good” to you. If you normally like big heavy reds and the wine I'm recommending is a farmers' blend Pinot from Burgundy that is described as “light and delicate with raspberry, strawberry and cream on the nose”, it's most likely not going to be “good” to you.

Finally, the best thing about buying wine from me is that by your purchases I get to know your palate. I get to know your level of openness to experimentation, your general budget, your level of consumption – all good things. When you are standing in front of that big wall of wine at CVS is anyone beside you saying - “I think you'd like this one”? I had a lady tell me this past week that she really can't even drink a buttery, oaky Chardonnay anymore since I got her to experiment with other white grapes – “Mark, you've ruined them for me”. Another lady and I are in the long process of finding a really good, oaky, buttery Chardonnay for her besides the dreaded “KJ” - I've struck out three times so far. Perfect! I love to get people to try new tastes and I love to find that wine that I know you'll love 'cause it's right in your wheelhouse! Both are fun and the more you buy from me, the better I get to know what I think you might like. It's that whole win/win thing!

so ... thanks to all of you who've purchased for making my job so enjoyable and for those of you who haven't, I look forward to being able to learn about your wine preferences so that I can help you enjoy wine even more than you already do!

your pal,

mt

just working hard for your pleasure!

just got back from Bozeman, one of my favorite distributors held a wine tasting for those of us who buy his wines - new products and new vintages of old favorites were opened - around 60 of us attended from all over the state - here's why it's fun to be in the wine business

they held it at a new restaurant on Main Street called the Blackbird Kitchen - fun food, great cheeses none of us have ever heard of, toasted bread from their homemade wood burning oven - lamb skewers and roasted red peppers - yep, perfect stuff for showing off wines!

in order of my favorites - here are some of the wines they popped:

a Spanish red from Ribera del Duero, had the old country nose but lots of lively fruit on the palate and finish - if you've not had a really good Spanish wine you should - if done well they define "unique" as compared to any other wine region in the world

the Vieux Telegraphe from Chateauneuf du Pape in Southern France - one of the legendary wines of the world, we tasted the '08 - that vintage had to follow the '07 which many people in the wine world are calling the best in our lifetime for the Rhone - I liked it - in talking with the owner of the distributorship the next day we agreed that it is probably more drinkable now than the '07 - great fruit and balance but it should be drunk now - we should be cellaring the '07 for a decade and then ... watch out!


an inexpensive little Pinot Noir from Chile from a pretty large producer called Montes - as you know from last weeks blog I try to shy away from large producers but this one actually stays true to its varietal - you know, exceptions make the world go round


a really interesting white from the Piedmont from the importer Kermit Lynch grabbed my palate - fresh and sparkly but not sweet - a perfect aperitif, a great match for foods on the lighter side and gosh darn it, just a fun wine to drink


a Sauvignon Blanc from Napa - never thought I'd say that I'd really like one of those but it was from a really well respected winery - Spottswoode - I brought a bottle back for a customer who, like me, is partial to Sav Blanc's from the Loire Valley in France - this one will be in my wine 'fridge from now on


and lastly, a pretty sweet (in both meanings of that word) Riesling from the Columbia Valley - in the $13 range with lots of clean to it - perfectly balanced where the sweetness is a complement, not the focus - I know it's not cool to like a sweeter wine but I've never been that cool anyway - I liked it and will serve it with my Thanksgiving Dinner - well unless I decide an Italian dinner makes me give more "thanks" than the traditional


so ... here's the fun part for you! I have access to all of these wines - the Spanish is from the '00 vintage and is semi-limited, the rest are all available regularly.


you know ... I am always doing what I can for the wine lovers of Great Falls - I'll keep you posted on what I'm drinking next!


your pal,


mt